Education minister Mathew Opoku Prempeh has told agitating trainee teachers that they will undertake their national service whether they like it or not.

The trainees embarked on a demonstration Wednesday in protest of the directive by the education ministry that they perform a mandatory national service before they are employed by the state.

The teachers say they have already undertaken their mandated horsemanship and will therefore be unfair to ask them to also do national service. The standoff has prevented government from posting the trainees since July when they completed their training.

Speaking at an event in Accra Thursday, the Manhyia MP said he is unfazed by the claims and agitations of the trainees.

“I heard the teacher trainees say that ‘yes, we are going to do induction and probation’ but ‘we don’t want to do national service’, really? When we say your induction and probation period is the same as your national service period, why don’t you want to do it? Nurses do it, doctors do it, lawyers do it. Everybody who has gone through the tertiary system does national services.

“So everybody is going to do it. It is a fight I’ll love because you have to tell me why you are better than somebody else. If you don’t do your national service we don’t get to employ you. We are going to do it,” he said.

Trainee teachers have in the past been been posted and employed by the state without national service.